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[short_dwarf]

i was wondering if someone has been able to design a good working ranch without all the ? poping on the animals....

[AlStar]

I think the closest you're going to get is to stick them all in a cage - anything else will break their pathfinding, causing your game to slow down as they keep trying to find new paths.

[puke]

except that they dont breed in cages.  

i have built indoor rances, but you could try making an outdoor one thats enclosed by windows (placable outside) or something.  or even an inside/outside one that crosses the cliff face.  if you enclose the areas they like to loiter in (usually the g-spot), you might have less pathfinding issues.

[Stromko]

Does chaining the animals cause them to keep trying to find new paths too?

In my latest fortress I've limited the animal population massively, I've just got a side-chamber with a bunch of non-pet doors where I give orders to have all possible animals chained. I don't have a chain for every animal presently, just sending them to get chained up in there drags them through the doors which are then impassable for them so they get stuck.

It's a sort of ranch I guess, since I slaughter everything that can't be turned into a wardog.  

[Momaw]

>> except that they dont breed in cages. <<

Yes, they do. You have to put a male and female creature in the same cage.

As a side note, there doesn't appear to be any reasonable limit to the number of creatures which will fit in one cage, so you can just toss your entire menagarie in there and they'll be fine.

[puke]

you sure about that?  i put about 40 horses of all types in a cage, and they slowly dwindled over two years as i selectivly butchered them.

i kept about a 4:1 ratio of female to male at all times, and no foals ever apeared.

[Momaw]

My critters were breeding just fine.  I don't know what other factors there might be... Did you Build the cage? It's not just sitting in your animal stockpile?

[Amir Alawi]

It has been my experience that animals will not breed inside cages at all.  The only exception is if they were impregnated before being caged -- then they will carry through with the term and give birth inside the cage.  But they won't get pregnant again until they're taken out of the cage.

[herrbdog]

I have done some experimenting regarding animals breeding in cages, and here are my conclusions:

Place the *EMPTY* cage, then assign animals, they will breed as normal. If you have to move the cage, either empty it, or build another cage first and re-assign them to it. No breeding problems.

However, if you unbuild a cage that has animal(s) in it, those animals WILL NOT breed again. I don't know if it affects all animals (of the type caged) or just the caged animals.

My war dogs usually get chained in key spots. The puppies, unassigned war dogs, horses, cows, whatever else (deers, foxes, etc.) all get shoved into ONE cage together. They all seem to breed normally.

Now, my experiments haven't been that extensive, but I did play around a bit. Heh, a GOD MODE df would be nice to test these things...